As\nthe Speech of God who is Omniscient and Powerful over all things, the Holy\nQur\u2019an contains stories whence many a lesson can be learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nis because human behaviour exists in recurring patterns discernible to those\nwho contemplate mankind\u2019s history, whose spiritual faculties of the intellect\nand the heart are granted to know the consequences of affairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus,\nhistorical parallels are an immensely useful tool to steer away from man-made\ndisasters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nPlague of Justinian which appeared in the middle of the 6th century was a\npandemic said to be among the causes weakening the Byzantine Empire, having\nkilled one-fifth of its population in the capital city of Constantinople by the\nyear 542. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\npandemic lingered for the next 200 years, claiming between 25 to 100 million lives.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On\nthe eve of the Prophetic mission in the 7th century, waves of the plague were still\nhitting the Eastern Roman Empire, frustrating its ability to raise defences and\nwage wars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nreversal of fortune also enabled the forces of the Rashidun Caliphate to defeat\nByzantium\u2019s armies several times, heralding Islam\u2019s emergence as a world power.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile,\nmeasures such as quarantine could not be instituted to contain the spread of\ninfection as there had yet to come a learned understanding about\ndiseases-causing microorganisms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many\nattributed the causes of diseases to visitations of an angry god, demonic activities,\nor miasmas of befouled air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet,\ntoday\u2019s world owes a great debt to Prophet Muhammad, whose injunctions recorded\nby Imam al-Bukhari (d. 870) as authentic Traditions (hadith sahih<\/em>) laid\nthe scientific foundation for modern epidemiology: (1) not to enter an area\nwhere an outbreak is declared, (2) not to leave if one\u2019s locality is hit with a\nplague, and (3) not to mix the sick with the healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite\nthe military successes of Emperor Justinian I (d. 565 CE), whom the Plague of\nJustinian was named after, the Romans rebelled violently against his government\ndue to three things: the oppressive taxes imposed upon them, the corruption of\nhis leading officials, and the wanton cruelty of the public enforcers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Observing\nthe effects of Justinian\u2019s wars, the historian Prokopios (d. 570 CE) writes\nthat half of Constantinople was destroyed while 30,000 people died the entire\nweek during which the Nika riots took place in the year 532. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This\nshows that a pandemic is not the only thing which can disunite a nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many\nclassical works on governance and statecraft such as Aristotle\u2019s Secreta\nSecretorum <\/em>(The Secret of Secrets) and Nizam al-Mulk\u2019s Siyar al-Muluk <\/em>(The\nRules for Rulers) reiterate that justice and fairness is a formula for an\nupright government while widespread corruption and tyranny is a recipe for a country\u2019s\ndisintegration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nByzantine experience shows how corruption and oppression centrifugalise a\nnation in the similar manner the centrifugation of blood breaks it down to\ncomponent parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nmany cases, breakaway states suffer the most because of inexperience in\nself-rule, deprivation of federated resources, and depredations of stronger and\nmore powerful enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For\nexample, the Balkanisation of the Ottoman Empire throughout the 19th and early\n20th centuries adversely affected the millet <\/em>system instituted to\nprotect minority groups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly,\nthe Breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992 precipitated the Bosnian War of 1992\u20131995\nwherein more than 100,000 people were killed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed,\nthe dangers of political centrifugalisation become pronounced when religious\ngroups prove to be quarrelsome; communities share only brief history; ethnicities\nharbour mutual envy and hatred; and a common language is no longer spoken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\na hadith <\/em>narrated by Ahmad, al-Tabarani, and al-Bayhaqi and\nauthentically transmitted from Nu\u2018man ibn Bashir, Prophet Muhammad reportedly said:\n\u201cUnity is mercy; disunity is punishment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\na 2014 myForesight <\/em>interview, scholar and educational thinker, Professor\nWan Mohd. Nor Wan Daud, proposes that national unity can be fostered through\nearly integration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This\ncan be achieved by a more wholesome mainstream education system which\nharmonises existing vernacular schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore,\ndemagogues should be prevented from abusing the language because it can create\nconfusion in knowledge wherein such divisive environment allows false leaders\nto centrifugalise the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nparticular, the Shari\u2018ah <\/em>technical term ijtihad<\/em> should not be (mis)used\nto mean \u201cpolitical manoeuvre\u201d because it refers to a learned personal opinion\nafter the exhaustive effort of looking for guidance in the Qur\u2019an, the\nProphetic Traditions (al-Sunnah<\/em>), and the scholarly consensus (al-Ijma\u2019<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since\npoliticians often act for the sake of political expediencies, they are liable\nto be punished if proven harmful to public interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On\nthe contrary, God grants the scholar making an ijtihad <\/em>double the reward\nif he hits the mark or single reward if he misses, but he is never faulted for a\ngenuinely mistaken opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nthe spirit of Malaysia\u2019s National Day, let us strive to treat the pandemic of\ndisease and discord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the Speech of God who is Omniscient and Powerful over all things, the Holy Qur\u2019an contains stories whence many a lesson can be learned. This is because human behaviour exists in recurring patterns discernible to those who contemplate mankind\u2019s history, whose spiritual faculties of the intellect and the heart are granted to know the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-straits-times","category-139","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}